Hair extensions are something everyone knows at least a little about. We all know they make the hair look longer, can be brightly colorful, have waves, curls, or be straight, and be brown, blonde, black or any color in between. This is usually the extent of knowledge when asked about hair extensions. Some people know more about them like the fact that they can be synthetic, made from animal hair, or made from human hair but there are more types than just that. The different types are Brazilian, Malaysian, Peruvian, Mongolian, Russian hair or Russian Federation, Cambodian, machine-wefted, hand-tied, Yaki, REMY, and virgin hair. With all of these different options how do you know which to choose?

What you should know about Hair Extensions

There are three different types of kits and they were already mentioned. They are fusion, also called bonded, hair extensions, tape-in hair extensions, and weave, also called sew-in, hair extensions. They each work differently and have their pros and cons. For the fusion kind a good hair extension type that uses this is Great Lengths. For this they fuse individual strands of hair dipped in keratin onto the natural hair using heat. This fuses them together. The tape-in hair extensions, such as Hot-Heads, is created by attaching wefts of hair to small individual sections of the natural hair by using double-sided tape. With the weave extensions your natural hair will be braided from ear to ear and the extension hair will be threaded in by using the braids to hold it together. These are just the basic facts about each of them but there is more to know.

Fushion

For the fusion type of hair extension it can work with just about any type of hair so it is generally universal no matter what type of hair you have or what type of hair extension you decide to use. Fusion is also the most expensive form of extension kit. It can range from $500 to $4,000 and take anywhere from three hours to three, sometimes four, months to complete. Since this can be costly and time consuming make sure it is something you’d be okay with and that it won’t hurt your budget.

Tape-In

The tape-in hair extension kit can also be universally used with practically any hair type. It is a little cheaper than the fusion kind but not by much considering it would need maintained and redone about every six to eight weeks. One tape-in session costs around $300 to $2,000 and takes about an hour to get done. With this, unlike with fusion, the same hair can be taken out and reapplied so you wouldn’t need to but new hair each time and as long as the extensions stay clean and nice they should work great.

Weave

The last is weaving and it generally works better with tight and curly hair that has the texture and the strength to support cornrows. Like tape-in these extensions can be used over and over and you won’t need to buy new hair each time unless you want to. This takes about an hour or two to put in and is the cheapest option costing only from $100 to $1,000. Like tape-in this kind also needs to be maintained around every three months.